Issa subpoenas W.H. official

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has issued a subpoena to a senior Obama administration to testify on the Hatch Act.

Issa is calling on David Simas, the director of the White House Office of Political Strategy and Outreach, to provide testimony on that office’s role in political campaigns. The Hatch Act is a 20th-century legislation prevents executive branch employees from engaging in partisan political activity.

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The hearing will center on Issa’s charge that the White House is “[abusing]…taxpayer funds for political gain.”

“In an effort to appease its political allies, the Obama Administration broadcast its intention to re-open a political office within the White House to assist in partisan election efforts and fundraising. This follows a serious pattern of behavior at the highest levels of the Administration,” Issa said.

The move prompted Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Democrat charged with countering Issa’s inquisitions into the Obama administration, to accuse the California Republican of being on a “subpoena binge.”

Cummings lambasted Issa’s decision to subpoena Simas as an “abuse of authority” for the Oversight Committee as Issa’s office has been unable to demonstrate “valid justification for this extreme action,” in a letter sent on Friday.

“Over the past several weeks — ever since House Speaker John Boehner took the Benghazi investigation away from the Oversight Committee and transferred it to the new Select Committee — you have been engaged in a subpoena binge, issuing more unilateral subpoenas than at any point during your tenure, and all with no debate or votes by our Committee,” Cummings wrote.

The Oversight Committee hearing next Wednesday will also feature Carolyn Lerner, the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, whose office found that the Office of Political Affairs — the forerunner of the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach — violated federal law and was a misuse of taxpayer funds.

“The subpoenas you have issued over the past several weeks have been abusive, overbroad, and in at least one case, issued to the wrong person. Issuing a unilateral subpoena with no legitimate justification undermines the credibility of this Committee and, if challenged, is unlikely to be upheld by a court of law,” Cummings wrote.

The same day the Select Committee was announced, Issa issued a subpoena for Secretary of State John Kerry to testify on the 2012 terrorist attacks at the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi. Issa was later forced to reissue the subpoena — before ultimately withdrawing it weeks later — as Kerry was scheduled to be abroad at the time.

Issa’s use of subpoenas has been mixed. His focus on Lois Lerner, the former Internal Revenue Service official who led the office accused of targeting tea party groups, has largely kept the controversy in the public eye. He has issued multiple subpoenas for her computer hard drive and her emails to the Federal Election Commission, moves that have drummed up the Republican base.

But a recent subpoena for Jennifer O’Connor, a former IRS employee who now works for the White House counsel’s office, fell flat as O’Connor left the agency before it was notified about Lerner’s missing emails.

Since the Oversight Committee first started investigating the IRS controversy, Issa and Cummings’ relationship has devolved markedly . Even though the two previously teamed up on legislation, they now have a notoriously bitter relationship, which hit a deep low when Issa cut off Cummings microphone during a hearing earlier this year.